The invention relates to a method of a message modification in a communication system and a device for performing the method, the communication system including at least one transmitter communication unit, data communication means and at least one receiver communication unit, and the message modification being performed after the message has been sent from a home communication unit to a target one.
There are known communication systems comprising a transmitter communication unit, data communication means end a receiver communication unit. Communication units may be both mobile and fixed. E.g. in an electronic-mail system, there are systems working in such a manner, that a created message, an electronic document, is by means of a computerised system, operating as data communication means, transmitted at first to a server of a provider of the connection and then to a mail server of an addressee. The electronic message shall be stored in the mail server, until it is withdrawn by the addressee.
By analogy, by transmission of audio messages and/or those in a text form, within the framework of a communication system, there is at one side created an audio and/or text message, which is by means of data communication means, such as a telephone network portable or fixed radio facilities, cellular wireless telephone devices etc., transmitted to a receiver communication unit, e.g. a telephone or a fax recorder.
In each case, from the moment of sending an electronic document and/or a message in audio or text from the transmitter communication unit, the sender has no possibility to modify and/or delete the message, in spite of the fact that the addressee has not withdrawn or read the message yet. If the sender later wishes to hand over some information that differs from that one included in the document delivered previously, he has only one possibility to do so, that is, to send another document referring to the original one
It is an object of the invention to provide a method for a modification of a message which has already been sent away.
The object of the invention is achieved and the foregoing problems are solved by a method of a message modification in a communication system including at least one transmitter communication unit, data communication means and at least one receiver communication unit in accordance with the present invention comprising a procedure in which after receiving a message, the message being delivered into a receiver communication unit through data communication means and stored in a storage unit, there is a password allocated to the sender, the password being allocated with respect to available information about an identity of the sender, and the password is delivered back to the transmitter communication unit as acknowledgement message and serves the sender as a key for obtaining an access to functions for modification and/or deleting a message stored in a communication unit of the receiver. Besides the access password there may be also delivered other information the receiver wants to pass to the sender. Further in accordance with the invention the received message is analysed, and provided its parameters are different from required ones, the sender is invited to modify the message. Still in accordance with the invention there is created an archive copy of a delivered message, which by means of the access password has been modified and/or deleted by the sender. According another aspect of the invention there is provided an equipment for performing the said method, the equipment including at least one transmitter communication unit, data communication means and at least one receiver communication unit, where the data communication means comprise computerised system, preferably an Internet computer, network. According to another preferred feature of this aspect of the invention the transmitter and/or receiver communication unit comprise an electronic unit and/or a system of electronic units, preferably a computer. Further in accordance with a preferred feature of the invention the data communication means comprise telecommunication means. Still in accordance with a preferred feature of the invention the transmitter and/or receiver communication unit comprise telephone and/or fax devices.
The method of a modification of a message which has been sent from a home communication unit through a communication system to a target communication unit facilitates a solution of the situation where the sender has dispatched an incorrect message, or where from the time of dispatching the message to its withdrawal by an addressee, conditions have altered so much that the said message has lost its validity. In such a case this invention allows the sender to change or delete the message without bothering the addressee with an invalid message.
The subject matter of this invention brings further advantages in cases where a message in some its characteristic features, like structured information such as an electronic signature, theme classification according a given standard, file number, etc., does not meet demands of the addressee. The communication unit of the addressee analyses the received message and the modification system according to the invention allows the sender to demand completion and/or modification of the message even before the addressee is able to withdraw it.